Lowell Correctional Institute situated just outside Ocala Florida is the depository for all female death row inmates it is also the depository for all pregnant female prisoners in the State of Florida Correctional system, how and by who the female inmates became pregnant is of grave concern as witnessed by the ever growing female inmate population nationwide and the increasing incidence of female prison rapes.

A formerLowell female prison inmate, who was serving time for child abuse, said in a sworn statement to investigators that former prison stores manager Larry Bindley had been giving her food, perfume and other gifts for months. She told investigators that after Bindley became her civilian supervisor in the prison canteen, he asked her “what I thought about sexual harassment and if I would submit to that if it was the only means of keeping my job.”

The Lowell Annex, part of the larger Lowell Correctional Institution, is north of Ocala. Bernadette Gregory was serving a 14-month sentence at the annex for robbery, according to records from the Department of Corrections and the Marion County court clerk. Offender Search for the Lowell CI Facility: Browse current population. If Casey Anthony is found guilty in the death of Caylee Anthony and sentenced to death, she will be sentenced to the Lowell Correctional Institution.

Male officers are sometimes present during many of the private moments in the lives of women prisoners at Lowell CI, when they dress and undress, take showers, or go to the toilet. Still more of a problem is that in almost all states male guards are permitted to carry out pat-down searches of female inmates, touching women through their clothes, including their breasts and genitals.

FRIDAY AUGUST 21st & SATURDAY AUGUST 22nd 2009, CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS EACH NIGHT ENTERED G DORM AND F DORM AT LOWELL C.I. AND CONDUCTED RAIDS. FROM INFORMATION AND WITNESSES TO F DORMS RAID APPROX. 18 OFFICERS AND SGTS. ENTERED F DORM AT APPROX. 12:00 MIDNIGHT. THEY WOKE THE INMATES AND THEN PROCEEDED TO TEAR UP THE DORM. IN SO DOING THEY POURED BLEACH ALL OVER THE INMATES BELONGINGS TO INCLUDE PAPERS, PHOTOS AND PERSONAL CLOTHING WHICH THEIR FAMILIES HAD PURCHASED. PHOTOS AND LEGAL DOCUMENTS BELONGING TO THE INMATES WERE TORN UP AND THROWN ABOUT.

THE LOWELL C.I. GUARDS SPIT CHEWING TOBACCO ON BEDDING AND CLOTHING, OPENED KETCHUP AND MUSTARD PACKS BELONGING TO THE INMATES AND SQUIRTED IT ALL OVER. THEY THREW THE INMATES CANTEEN PRODUCTS ALL OVER AND BROKE RADIOS. TALLAHASSEE SENT SOME ONE DOWN AND THEY SPOKE TO THE INMATES, TELLING THEM THEY WERE SORRY AND WILL REPLACE THE ITEMS, BROKEN, STOLEN OR DESTROYED. RUMOR HAS IT THAT 5 OFFICERS WERE SUSPENDED WITHOUT PAY. RUMOR HAS IT THAT 5 OFFICERS HAVE ALSO BEEN ESCORTED OF THE FACILITY GROUNDS AT LOWELL C.I..

8/28/09: Visitation Cancellations Lowell CI: August 29 – 30, 2009Visitation is Cancelled for certain inmates at Lowell Correctional Institution, August 29 and 30, 2009. Visitation has been cancelled for some dormitories at Lowell Correctional in Ocala. Visitation is cancelled for inmates in C and U dormitories. Please call the institution for more information, 352-401-5301.

Women in prison also have other grave concerns. Sixty-five percent of women in state prisons have young children at home. Depriving women in prison from seeing their children when they come to visit is one of the many ways a guard can coerce women into a sexual act. Fewer women in prison have a criminal history as compared to men. For many, incarceration for the first time is a particularly terrifying experience, even more so if a woman is raped while incarcerated.

Women’s prisons are places where men, often white men, exert power and control over poor women, often women of color. One of the more terrifying aspects of rape in prison is that the victims “cannot escape their abuser.” Everywhere a woman who has been raped in prison goes, the officer who raped her has access to her. This contact also serves to reinforce the fear of retaliation if the woman reports the rape, in most cases nothing is ever done to the guards and even if the case did come before a criminal court the guards get off with much lighter sentences.

Guard who raped woman inmate gets a year in prison, George Sims, 28, of Maple Heights Cleveland OH, was sentenced Monday to a year in prison for raping a woman inmate April 28 at the Warrensville Heights Jail, where he was a guard, normal prison time for forced rape is 10 to 15 years in prison. Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Eileen T. Gallagher also sentenced him to five years of probation. He was classified a sexual offender who must register his address and place of employment with a sheriff’s office every 90 days for life. He pleaded guilty to sexual battery and faced a maximum of 5 years in prison. The woman has sued Sims and the city in civil court.

Carswell Conviction: A Former Guard is Found Guilty of Sexually Abusing a Prisoner. On Feb. 10, former guard Michael Lawrence Miller became the seventh employee of the federal prison camp for women at Carswell Texas to be convicted of sexual abuse of a prisoner in the last seven years. A jury in U.S. District Judge John McBryde’s court that morning convicted Miller of raping Marilyn Shirley, a prisoner in his custody, in March 2000. The jury of 10 women and two men found him guilty on five counts: aggravated sexual abuse, sexual abuse of a ward, abusive sexual contact, abusive sexual contact with a ward, and assault. His are the most serious charges to date to be brought against Carswell’s sexual predators. According to the U. S. Attorney’s office, he is facing a sentence of 11 years to life in prison and a fine as high as $1.25 million.

Prison Rapes ‘Routine’. Female inmates are routinely raped and sexually abused by guards in New York’s state prisons—and two women have become pregnant, according to a lawsuit to be filed today in Manhattan Federal Court. In the court papers, the Legal Aid Society names 15 women—many of them originally from New York City—who charge they were sexually abused by 10 correction officers. Three of the guards allegedly abused more than one woman at upstate prisons such as Albion, Taconic and Bedford Hills. Many of the officers are still employed in the prisons, the suit contends.

The suit also charges that the women suffer retaliation from prison staff for reporting allegations of sexual abuse. The suit, filed against the state Correctional Services Department, accuses the department of turning “a blind eye to the abuser and coerced prostitution of prisoners under their care.” It claims the agency’s investigation of sexual misconduct is “grossly inadequate” and allows “sexual misconduct to continue virtually unabated.”

Allegations of female prisoner abuse at Lowell C.I. needs investigation by the FDLE.